Mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computers and the like) typically are implemented as special purpose computers that are powered by a mobile operating system (“OS”). The most common mobile operating systems used by modern smartphones include Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Nokia's Symbian, RIM's BlackBerry OS, Samsung's Bada, Microsoft's Windows Phone, Hewlett-Packard's webOS, and embedded Linux distributions such as Maemo and MeeGo. Such operating systems can be installed on many different phone models, and typically each device can receive multiple OS software updates over its lifetime.
Mobile device users often download additional software—for example, application programs (or “apps” for short)—for execution on their mobile devices to provide added functionality in the form of games, productivity apps, messaging apps, social networking apps and the like. Unfortunately, certain bad actors sometimes will hide harmful computer code—generally referred to as malware—in a software app that, outwardly to the mobile user, appears to be useful at best or innocuous at worst. In such a case, when a mobile user downloads and installs a piece of software containing malware onto his or her mobile device, the malware will attempt to take over control of the mobile device. In some cases, malware based applications can be downloaded without explicit user authorization. Moreover, some malware can be controlled via Short Message Service (SMS) based messages to launch an attack such as a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack or to extract confidential, sensitive or financial information and use it for purposes of fraud, theft, or other nefarious ends.